Long Week

My "Strange and Amazing" post seems even more amazing after the week we've had. All of a sudden, Heather seems uninterested in sleeping in either the crib or the pack'n'play. She can fall asleep on one of us and be in a deep sleep, and if we put her down she wakes up anywhere from 5-60 minutes after being put down. And that's even if she clearly needs sleep.

Not only is it difficult to deal with the sudden dearth of sleep, but the change also came at the point when R went back to work and night duty became all mine. The short term solution this week was for her and I to sleep together on the couch, but even last night that wasn't good enough as she was awake for 3 hours following her midnight feeding and I had difficulty settling her down for any significant naps this afternoon. The first time she fell asleep on me, I put her in the P'n'P after a bit because I needed food. She lasted about 30 minutes. The next time I let her sleep on me, but she still only slept for 2 hours and woke up in a foul mood.

We need to start trying to swaddle her for sleep in the hopes that if she can't move she'll have more difficulty waking herself up. The thing that makes it difficult is figuring out when to do the swaddling, because she really dislikes it when she's awake enough to know what's going on.

I'm hopeful that the recent changes are just the result of a growth spurt and it will pass soon. The other possibility (based on other observations and things I've read) is that she's having a mild case of reflux. As a pre-emptive measure, I've decided to stop eating the most likely foods that could cause her discomfort. It unfortunately means that some of the dairy products in the refrigerator will go bad unless the friends who are coming to visit tomorrow want to take some of them home...

The log cabin blanket is finished and blocking. I also finished the bib (a shower gift) except for the buttons and started a washcloth (another shower gift). I also need to see if the booties and mittens I started in January have any chance of fitting Heather. Though the only real goal for the weekend is to get caught up on thank you notes while R is around to help with Heather - because I can't get them done during the week when she isn't napping in the P'n'P.

There is a knitting GTG on Sunday and it is at a friend's house only 5 minutes from our house. I'd like to go for a little while (I haven't left the house since the 16th), and whether Heather comes with me depends on how much sleep we both get between now and then. Of course, if she doesn't come with me I won't be able to stay as long because I haven't pumped any milk yet.